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Borderlands pop culture references
There are a number of pop culture references (memes, movie references, etc) in the game, including: *In the "Claptrap Rescue Mission", the Guardian Angel asks, "Would you kindly help him out?" The phrase "Would You Kindly" was the trigger phrase used by the main antagonist of Bioshock, another game published by 2K Games, to force the player's character to perform actions. *Bruce McClane refers to Bruce Willis, aka Sgt.det. John McLane from the Die Hard series. Mad Mel, is of course, Mel Gibson, aka Mad Max, from the Mad Max movie series. *The side quest "Schemin' That Sabotage" seems to be a reference to the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." *Chuck Durden refers to ''Fight Club''. Chuck Palahniuk wrote the book, and his main character is Tyler Durden. *The hidden 'on a boat' achievement refers to the Lonely Island hit ft. T-Pain 'on a boat'. *The Righteous Man, Great Vengeance and Furious Anger. The boats you destroy to complete the mission "I've got a sinking feeling" are references to the movie Pulp Fiction where Samuel L. Jackson's character reads Ezekiel 25:17. *A room depicting "A Christmas Story" is found in New Haven. *The racetrack, Ludicrous Speedway, in Dahl Headlands is a reference to the movie "Space Balls" where, at one point, Lord Dark Helmet jumps to ludicrous speed. *A quest called "Dumpster Diving For Great Justice" refers to the infamous meme from Zero Wing. *The Rakk unique enemy named "Rakkinishu" is a reference to the Diablo 2 mini-boss Rakanishu, that you face before entering Tristram. Rakkinishu also drops an orb shield called a Cracked Sash, a common item from Diablo 2. *Godzilla is referenced several times, with unique skag "Skagzilla" and unique Rakk "Mothrakk" (a reference to the title monster in Godzilla vs. Mothra). *Lucky Zaford. His last name is a reference to "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" characters, Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect. *In the opening cinematic, Marcus explains that Pandora is not a planet of 'Peace and Love', a reference to the catch phrase 'love and peace' of the character Vash the Stampede in the anime Trigun. The world in which Trigun is set bares many similarities to Pandora *Jaynis Kobb is a reference to Adam Baldwin's character Jayne Cobb from the TV series Firefly. The town of Jaynistown is a also a reference to an episode where there is a town named Jaynestown after Jayne. *During the mission "Missing Persons" you encounter the corpse of Shawn Stokely with the word "Reaver" carved into his forehead. This references the very raider-like antagonists in the TV series Firefly (and accompanying movie, Serenity) who are known as "Reavers," among whom facial mutilation of this type is commonplace. *The "My Brother is an Italian Plumber" achievement is clearly a reference to the Super Mario Bros. franchise. To get the achievement, you must kill an enemy by stomping on its head, something Mario commonly does to kill enemies. *The challenge "Hot! Too Hot!", is a reference to the "Space Balls" scene where Dark Helmet is drinking coffee and exclaims "HOT! TOO HOT!" *The challenge "Who Made That Man A Gunner?", is a reference to the "Space Balls" scene where a gunner should "fire across her nose, not up it!" Later in this scene in Spaceballs, Dark Helmet discovers that everyone on the bridge has the surname "Asshole" and directs them to "Keep firing, Assholes!" This quote is referenced by the Borderlands challenge "Keep firing". *The title of the achievement "Can't We Get BEYOND Thunderdome?" is a reference to a joke told by the robot Tom Servo in Mystery Science Theater 3000, episode 706 with the punchline: "Come on, can't we just get beyond Thunderdome?" *The challenge "Get off my lawn" which is achieved by gaining a number of shotgun kills, is a reference to Clint Eastwood movie "Gran Torino", in which he says the aforementioned quote. *The "Blaster Master" color scheme for the Outrunner refers not just to the movie "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome" but also to the NES game "Blaster Master" which features a buggy-like tank with a red color scheme. It is possible that it is also named after the character "Master Blaster" from the said movie. More directly, Gearbox referenced the design of many of the vehicles from "Beyond Thunderdome" in creating the Outrunner. *The quest “Well There's Your Problem Right There” is a reference to the show “Mythbusters” on Discovery channel. The saying is a catchphrase of presenter Jamie Hyneman, typically exclaimed when looking at the wreckage of something they have just blown up. *The soldier character, Roland references Stephen King's Dark Tower series. *A random enemy shouts the phrase: "I'll take pleasure in gutting you, boy". A reference to the 1996 Michael Bay movie The Rock. *The achievement "Pandora-dog Millionaire" references the movie title "Slumdog Millionaire". *The achievement "1.21 Gigawatts" references the DeLorean's power requirements for time travel in the "Back to the Future" movie trilogy. *The unique spiderant Helob is a reference to the giant spider Shelob from J.R.R Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers *A powerful revolver is named Patton, with the sub-text "May God have mercy on my enemies, because I won't." This is a famous quote from General George S. Patton. *The achievement "Master Exploder" is a reference to the Tenacious D song of the same name. *The weapon effect text "I have you in my eye, sir." on the Atlas Cyclops is from the movie The Madness of King George''http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110428/quotes *One of Roland's quotes is "another one bites the dust" which is a line from the band Queen hit songs "Another One Bites The Dust". *The achievement, "There are some who call me...Tim" references the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, where Tim the Enchantor says the aforementioned quote when asked his name by King Arthur. *Mordecai's name is a reference to the movie The Royal Tenenbaums. In the film, one of the characters has a pet falcon named Mordecai. *The Challenge "Boom goes the dynamite" refers to the viral video of the same name. *The gun 'lady finger' bears the inscription 'Omnia Vincit Amor', which is a reference to Chaucer's ''General Prologue in which the Prioress wears a ring bearing the same inscription. *At some points, various psychos scream "Now it's time for my pound of flesh!", which is no doubt a reference to Shylock's line in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. References